Torzi Matthews Frost Dodger Shiraz 2006
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In making this Shiraz we carefully hand picked and dried the fruit on racks prior to crush in the ancient Italian method Appassimento, the key to the wine's distinctive nature. Matured for 27 months in new and seasoned French and American oak hogsheads, creating a complex wine of solid structure and velvet elegance.
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Wine Spectator
Dark plum and blackberry flavors turn almost syrupy against fine tannins, with a swipe of black pepper that keeps the finish honest. Expressive and generous, this could develop even more with cellaring. Drink now through 2014.
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2004-
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I am fifth generation Calabrian - Abruzzese stock and grew up on the Adelaide Plains working for the family's market gardens as for Tracy she was born and raised in Sydney’s Newcastle with a long career in hospitality.
In 1996 Tracy and I stumbled across a small, frost-pocketed hollow in the beautiful Mt McKenzie, Eden Valley and fell in love with the area for its remoteness and its diverse thin soils.
The rationale was quite simple: this land would produce low yields of Shiraz fruit which in turn would translate into a full, flavoursome Italian style wine - the style of wine needed to match our Mediterranean Italian food.
Tracy and I had plenty of detractors and lots of unsolicited advice, some good, some ...well some people don't have vision. The vines went in, the frosts came, the yields were low and Frost Dodger was created.
Frost Dodger wines are crafted via non-interventional Italian / European techniques where our heritage appassimento method is used for our Shiraz fruit a method that employs careful hand harvested whole bunches which are then put onto racks which are laid out for drying in the natural mother air on the estate and in turn fermented naturally by the indigenous yeasts from the vineyard.
Though Syrah originated in the Rhône Valley of France, Australia is home to the oldest Syrah (called Shiraz here) vines on the planet. Found in Australia’s Barossa Valley, where phylloxera has never threated viticulture, these ancient vines are between 140 to 175 years old!
Having brought fame and merit to the country’s wine scene since the early 1950s, namely via the debut of Penfolds Grange, today Syrah (Shiraz) claims rank as the most widely planted grape in Australia. In fact, the amount of land dedicated to Shiraz in Australia is now almost equivalent to what it is in France. Australian Shiraz has its own personality with flavors and aromas of intense blackberry, fruitcake, menthol, tobacco leaf and umami. Conveniently one can find great Australian Shiraz at a variety of price points but the very best will be dense, gloriously complex and capable of long aging.